Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
2 Kings 24:8–17
Today the biblical author brings us to the year 597 B.C.,
the year of the first Babylonian deportation.
Jerusalem could already have been destroyed then.
But Jehoiachin surrendered to the power of Babylon, and the city was spared.
For a time.
His uncle Zedekiah was then placed on the throne by the Babylonians.
But he rebelled.
He refused to surrender.
And in 586 B.C., Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was burned.
The road to ruin was not short.
It was long.
It was paved with warnings ignored, prophets rejected, leaders pretending to be strong when wisdom required humility.
We often repeat Cicero’s saying that history is life’s teacher.
But do we learn?
We often say that the Bible is the Word of God.
But do we listen?
When Jeremiah told the king to surrender the city to Babylon (see Jer 38:17), he was treated as a traitor.
It is hard to hear that surrender can sometimes be wiser than destruction.
It is hard to accept that courage is not always resistance.
Sometimes courage means saving life before pride burns everything down.
Nebuchadnezzar exiled from Jerusalem “the notables of the land,” but he left in the land “the poorest people” (2 Kings 24:14–15).
That is remarkable.
Among the nobles was Ezekiel, whose ministry in Babylon shows that the Lord did not abandon His people in exile.
Even there, far from the temple, far from the land, far from everything familiar, God still spoke.
And it was in exile, in the shadow of catastrophe, that the Bible itself took its final shape.
One of the greatest tragedies of God’s people brought forth one of humanity’s most precious gifts:
the book of books.
As Christians, we know this pattern well.
The greatest tragedy in history, the crucifixion of God’s Son, has become the source of our salvation and everlasting grace.
On the other hand, “the poorest people” inherited the land.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt 5:5).
Pope Benedict said that conquerors come and go; those who cultivate the land, the meek and humble, remain.
The road to ruin was long.
It began when Solomon mixed faith in God with idol worship,
when leaders ignored warning after warning,
when the nation refused to come to its senses.
This is a lesson our leaders still need to learn.
If they do not, they may bring not only their countries, but the whole world, to ruin.
And then there will be no refuge for the nobles to write their annals,
and no land left for the poor to cultivate.
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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